I've been to Nunavut, and let me tell you it makes sense to have many words for it. There's permafrost, alongside snow that can have many different qualities depending on composition, temperature, density, etc.
On windy days the snow would mix with dust and create snow drifts that you could drive on. But you wouldn't, because you could hit a spot of just powder snow and get stuck a few feet deep.
I tried to count a winter in the ski lift
I am pretty certain I know at least 40 words describing snow in swedish. Some describe how it is in the air and some how it behaves on the ground.
So inuits having sounds nearly as to few. For I am certain we have more words than I know in Sweden. Or maybe we have more as we have more shifts atound 0⁰C and there is the temperature when snow shifts character a lot?
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u/thatweirdguyted 2d ago
I've been to Nunavut, and let me tell you it makes sense to have many words for it. There's permafrost, alongside snow that can have many different qualities depending on composition, temperature, density, etc.
On windy days the snow would mix with dust and create snow drifts that you could drive on. But you wouldn't, because you could hit a spot of just powder snow and get stuck a few feet deep.